Page 66 of Artifice

“Thanks, Tevin.”

As soon as she ended that call, she dialed Rex on FaceTime. Her boss’s tanned face appeared on screen.

Rex was in his early forties, and he wore his age well. With his square jaw and blond hair, people often compared him to a Ken doll. The man was a former Navy SEAL who’d gone on to work for the State Department before starting Aegis.

“You’re calling with an update, I assume?” His intense gaze met hers through the camera.

Olive usually sent him updates via encrypted messages every couple of days while on assignment. But she wanted to talk to him about this face-to-face—as face-to-face as the phone screen allowed.

“I may have a problem.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

She told him about Simon—about the ordeal at the warehouse, about their conversation in her car, and about the incident at Lighthouse Harbor today.

Rex’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have a picture of this guy?”

“I managed to snap one earlier today.” She sent a photo over.

She watched as Rex squinted at the screen.

“I don’t recognize him,” he finally said with a shake of his head.

“Do you think he’s FBI maybe? DEA? Maybe he’s actually secretly investigating?”

His eyes narrowed into an unreadable expression. “It’s a possibility. But it’s also a possibility that he’s working for someone else, someone with less honorable intentions. I need you to be careful, Olive.”

Something about his words caused her blood to go cold. “I will be. And I’ll keep you updated.”

CHAPTER 34

After talking to Rex, Olive quietly slipped up to her room. She didn’t see anyone—not even Mrs. Potts—on her way upstairs.

As soon as she stepped into her room, something on the floor caught her eye.

Two footprints left a dirty outline on the floor near her window.

Her heart pounded harder.

Someone had been in her room . . . again.

And she didn’t think it was Mrs. Potts. The woman’s feet weren’t that big. And these appeared to be work boots, if Olive had to guess.

Tension pulled taut between her shoulders as she crept through the room, searching for anything that had been disturbed.

Best she could tell, everything was still in place.

She grabbed her laptop—she’d put it in the safe—and quickly pulled up the camera feed.

Then she sat on her bed and began reviewing the footage from when she’d been gone. She had to know who’d been inside.

Had Mrs. Potts sent someone to fix the faucet? If so, why had this person walked to the window?

She fast-forwarded through most of the day.

Her breath caught when she saw someone step into her room.

Finally, the man turned toward one of the cameras.